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Yes and yes. At the end of the day, I wonder how much Buehrle's circumstances will truly differ from your garden-variety major-league ballplayer, in terms of how much he sees his family during the season.

Are pit bulls dangerous because they're owned by macho ########## who don't train or socialize them adequately, or do macho ########## own pit bulls because they're dangerous dogs that enhance their owner's self-image of badassery? I lean towards the latter.

The larger, stronger, and naturally disposed to fighting, the more critical it is to adequately train, socialize, and monitor a dog. Some of the dogs with the worst dispositions are Chihuahuas, but they're so little that they don't pose the same sort of threat as a big animal.

In that sense, pit bulls, who are remarkably strong for their size with a history of breeding for the purpose of fighting and guarding, are particularly dangerous. People who want to own a dog that inspires fear in others will gravitate toward this sort of breed. So the answer is both: pit bulls are, by their nature, well-suited to aggression and dangerous behavior; and the wrong sort of people tend to desire them precisely for this reason.

A well-trained pit bull raised in a loving household by responsible owners is not a dangerous animal. A poorly-trained pit bull is a serious risk, but most dogs of reasonable size can be pretty dangerous if you don't train them properly. My mom's English Setter is perhaps the most docile dog I have ever seen, but she wasn't that way as a puppy. In fact, when we first got her, she was very food-aggressive, but we trained her and now she'll let a stranger touch her food while she eats without even reacting. My dog (a lab-shepherd mix) is around 65 pounds and she's similarly well-trained, but it doesn't happen by accident.